(ABOVE: Colt Defender .45 ACP with range-kit)
This was my 6th 7th range visit for this year; averaging around once a month is the best that I can do with everything else that competes for attention. My previous range session was on the 10th of last month and that was for my required CCL re-qualification class.
This range session was a "me" thing; I went shooting just for the fun of it. This was my first full range shakedown of this pistol; it is an impulse-purchase hobby-gun.
8 magazines were used during this session (all new, all Wilson's)
2 x 8-round magazines
4 x 7-round magazines
2 x 6-round magazines
--------------------------------------
30-feet was the farthest distance that I wanted to deal with during this session.
2 x 8-round mags were fired at the obligatory flesh eating space alien silhouette.
-----------------------------------
---------------------------------
Of the 57-rounds of ball ammo that were fired during this range session there was a pair of feed-jams that occurred, one each from a pair of the 7-round capacity magazines; that is not encouraging.
There also was a squib round that did clear the barrel but it did not cycle the slide and eject the case (that's an ammo issue, not a gun issue or a mag issue).
I am of the opinion (be it ever so humble) that this model (and the original Colt Officers Model from which it evolved) has the best functional potential when used with 6-round magazines and ball ammunition. The flush fit 7-round magazines and the extended 8-round magazines compound the potential for problems with this somewhat edgy pistol design; face it folks, shrinkifying a pistol with a 5'' barrel down to a pistol with a 3'' barrel isn't an engineering task that is free of complications.
I suspect that a new extractor and the exclusive use of high quality 6-round magazines would make this particular pistol (i.e., the one I own) reliable enough for use with (some) personal defense hollowpoint ammunition.
Overall, I'd say that Colt's poor man's version of Bill Laughridge's Adventurer design is pretty darn good for a mass production pistol. Visually speaking, the sights are quick and easy to pick up; aesthetically, the sights look (to me) to be too big for the pistol (yeah, I have a strange sense of fashion). The Larry Seecamp designed recoil springs apparently soaked up most of the recoil that I had expected the .45 ACP to pulse through the pistol's light aluminum frame; my arthritic hands appreciatively give it two gnarly thumbs up! It is sweet and easy to control. Without a doubt in my mind, this 3'' Colt Defender is far better than the 3.5'' Colt Officers Model that I owned (and eventually gave up on and sold) many years ago.
